A blog about the Big Four of the English Premier League

Le Boss is the MAN

“But fifty years into the future, no Gooner will forget that image of a tall, thin, white-haired French man standing imperiously in a hostile Old Trafford stand, arms outspread in defiance.” – The Mailbox

Say all you fucking want you Manc wankers, he is the epitome of dignity. He is the Man. And he is ours.

And did those boots, of Wenger’s team
Walk upon the Emirates turf so green?
And did they play, with great esteem
The best football we’ve ever seen?
And with a cannon on our chest
We play with heart, and mind, and zest
And we are proud to be Arsenal
In victory through harmony

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24 Responses

gunner’s dream,
the other post is flooded with comments.anyways now that u wanted a debate tell me seriously didnt u realize your team was under par for the best part of the second half? And more importantly didnt u look seriously incapable of capitalizing on uniteds really stale performance accompanied by easily-giving -the-ball-away united?possession alone does not count,and if ur team was as great as u think shouldn they have put the match to bed by the end of the first half? And dont u think too much is being made out of the arshavin penalty appeal when incidents like these happen in almost every other game.and it is important that u understand u lost the game because u could not make the most out of your opponents weakness more than some ref dished out 7 yellow cards to arsenal players.you guys have had ur share of luck with adebayor s goal a couple of seasons back.so it is imperative that u understand that the loss is arsenal s own doing and not anyone elses

under par for best part of 2nd half????? which match were u watching? if anything arsenal dominated for most of the 2nd half and almost scored just before both ur goals and almost immediately after it.
and u effectively are admitting united got lucky

I have already mentioned that a yellow for fletcher in the first half would have a made a great deal of difference in the game considering he was the only one in ur midfield doing any kind of tackling

And 7 yellow cards in one game for one team is not a run of the mill thing, so yes it does have an effect (and not awarding a penalty which was a foul on 2 counts in one tackle doesn’t happen every other game also, neither does one clear cut penalty rejected and one 50-50 being awarded)

and by the way, no one is yet to claim that Arsenal did not make mistakes and a large part of their undoing were those mistakes, but those mistakes were aided by some very shoddy refereeing without which on another day we might have gotten away with them

harish,
under par does not necessarily mean second best. And i repeat possession alone does not count.u were given the better team tag because of the fact that u looked more assured on the ball as compared to an united side bereft of any form of possession discipline.but your chances to possession ratio was also pretty poor.and as keyrock says i dont think u forced more than 2 meaningful saves from foster.le god steered clear of the defence but pulled the trigger in a very pitiable manner.so using no chances created no goals hence no win rule i guess u deserve the result. and again dont make too much of the penalty or the fletcher yellow card things like these happen and as i ve pointed out even u ve had your slices of luck.stop moaning and stop supporting diaby atleast until the next match.

Too much is being made out of refereeing decisions. Face it, your team made mistakes and paid for it.
The Rooney penalty was a 50-50, could have gone either way, so u can’t really complain about that. Fletcher’s was a penalty, but that decision did not change the outcome.
And apart from Van Persie’s effort, they never really threatened in the 2nd half. In fact, the better chances in the 2nd half fell to United, and were it not for Berba/Nani, the margin could have been bigger.
So all that talk of playing against united and the ref, and being robbed in daylight is just bullshit.

The article has a clear bias. (Xenophobia even maybe?) How come you have totally ignored what Richard Bevan has had to say? What happened was nonsense. It WAS a special circumstance and he should have been sent to the dressing room and not the stands.

Wenger’s players were a pretty tough bunch. They did pick up a lot of Reds. So did Keane. Would you call him a cheat then? Cos those reds were picked for similar offenses. If you call Eduardo a cheat, call Ronaldo a cheat, call Rooney a cheat.

B) A blatant dive, where Rooney is going down before Mooney touched him ( Wow! that sounded dirtayy)

C) Our Defensive Midfielder is booked for a nothing challenge, thereby limiting his aggressive play ..This is in the fuckin 23rd minute, whereas Man of the Match Fletch goes on fouling without as much as a reprimand from United fan and 12th man Mickey Deano.

We were ‘under par’ in the second half. Really mate, Arshavin skinnin O’shit and RVP being denied by a point blank save and then smashing the cross bar…and then having an offside goal disallowed in injury time. Diaby slaloming through the United defense to drag his shot wide…

These were clear cut chances…We weren’t under par. United weren’t stale…we made them look like crap. Our midfield made Giggs look more suited to the golf course than the football pitch, made Carrick look so bad that United fans could be forgiven for thinkin even Djemba-Djemba was at times better than Carro’s horror show on Saturday.

We conceded a poor goal. We made mistakes. Yes, but in no way does that mean that we didn’t deserve to win the game. We did, we outclassed you guys ….and the referee robbed us.

Like I said, our play was superior and we deserved the victory. Unfortunately the ref decided to take centre stage and the plaudits for another ‘famous’ United win.

What up with Arsenal and looking to pin the blame? I mean, really, the ref winning the game for United is just waaay too much a stretch. Why can’t you just look at yourself and say we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory?

clearly u didnt make united look like crap.you are incapable of doing it boss.i know its a hard one to swallow but thats the truth.and talking one save,one post,one wide.united also had three equally good chances. And dude u are finding it too hard to swallow the defeat,so u are seeing things with they robbed us eye.so try to come out of it and you will see something very similar to a lot of losses you have had to endure due to ur inability to
exploit the weakness of the opposition. And giggs still has it in him for further details ask the divine diaby.and carrick is not having his best spell now.so if u prefer to live under that delusion then the wake up call is not gonna take long to come.

. Look at it this way, if the Arshavin penalty had rightly been given, and Rooney’s was not …with the former having a much greater claim at being a certain penalty than the latter ..would the outcome have been different? Did those decisions cost Arsenal victory.

I can with a great degree of certainty say that Yes, we would have won if not for those decisions. And that implies the referee cost us the game . Doesn’t it?

We made mistakes but that doesn’t take away the fact that we were better and if there was a competent ref, I have no doubt whatsoever that we would have won

We’ve had lots of Arsenal fans on here over the past couple of days telling us that Wayne Rooney dived, just like Eduardo, to earn United their equalising goal and way back in to the game. We have been accused of wearing red-tinted specs (something I happily admit to and challenge any passionate football fan to view a game from any perspective other than biased towards their own team!) and that is why we fail to see what a cheat Rooney really is.

I would argue the only ‘cheat’ from Saturday’s match was Eboue, who intentionally went out to try and con the ref, just days after the media storm around Eduardo’s dive and ban. But apparently, according to Arsenal fans at least, Rooney is exactly the same.

So, what better way to judge the penalty incident than to read the match reports. Given that the press have been having weekly wanks over Arsenal’s performances, surely they would be able to spot a cheating and diving Rooney if they saw one. After all, they all hung him out to dry following our 2-0 win over them in 2004.

Was it a penalty?

Official Arsenal website: YES
Arsenal had looked good value for their lead until the 59th minute when Manuel Almunia clipped Wayne Rooney in the area. Rooney raced across the area and poked the ball away from Almunia. The keeper certainly made contact with the striker as he went through. Rooney picked himself up and stroked the ball home from the spot.

The Times: YES
Wayne Rooney had won and scored the penalty that drew United level after Manuel Almunia had inexplicably raced out and caught the forward’s ankles.

The Guardian: YES
The Spaniard was suckered at the United equaliser, after 58 minutes, when he brought down Wayne Rooney. The attacker was chasing a Giggs through ball and had nudged it towards the flank just before the goalkeeper made contact with him. Rooney swept in the penalty.

The Observer: YES
Arsenal were in front and in control until Manuel Almunia left his line too enthusiastically and bundled Wayne Rooney over while trying to reach the ball. Wenger seems to like players who are “shrewd in the box”. Maybe he needs to have a word with his own goalkeeper.

The Sun: YES
In the 59th minute United somehow were level and there was no question it was a penalty, either. Rooney roared into the box on a diagonal run and was needlessly felled by Manuel Almunia. Just what the Arsenal keeper was doing charging out to that part of his area only he will know. Rooney picked himself up and coolly put it away.

The Independent: YES
Unlike the Eduardo travesty in mid-week, the Rooney penalty which snapped Arsenal’s extremely impressive hold over the reigning champions was inevitable. Manuel Almunia could only have offered himself and his team up more spectacularly if he had brought along his own altar of sacrifice. Wenger said the penalty award was “Old Traffordish”, which made you wonder quite what category in which to place the Eduardo affair.

The Mirror: YES
Arsenal were in complete control but a rush of blood to Manuel Almunia’s head, when he needlessly upended Rooney to concede a penalty, handed United a way back into the game.

The Telegraph: YES
Wenger was waspish in his verdict of the penalty decision that gave United their equaliser. “Oldtraffordish,” was the neologism he coined for it. True, when Manuel Almunia, the Arsenal goalkeeper, came flying out to challenge Wayne Rooney, the England striker started to go down before contact was made. But there was substantial contact, unlike with the Eduardo incident, so it was a penalty. Rooney converted from the spot.

Even The Daily Mail, who totally ripped United and Sir Alex Ferguson to shreds in their report: YES
Abou Diaby might have followed Rooney’s penalty – courtesy of Manuel Almunia’s needless foul on the England striker – with a quite spectacular 64th minute own goal but, had it not been for that momentary loss of concentration, he would have been man of the match.

So, if we say that Rooney didn’t dive and won the penalty fair and square, it is because we are biased. Equally, every single newspaper in the country is also biased towards United – naturally. They all saw that he dived but they all independently choose to write that he didn’t. The only people not biased in this situation are the Arsenal fans who can see the incident completely impartially and they’re not at all bitter. Just like their manager isn’t. I’m glad we’ve sorted out any confusion.

Dude. Excellent research da. No one’s arguing the contact. Eduardo was banned because he showed intent to con the referee. Same thing with Rooney. he kicked the ball to the corner flag and started to go down before there was contact and made sure he made the contact as well. Avlo dhan.